The New York Public Library was busy last week. In addition to announcing support for the DPLA, NYPL also released its Digital Collections API (Application Programming Interface), which allows users to submit large (and small) queries against the metadata for NYPL’s online collections. The API exposes the metadata, distributed under a CC0 license, for over 1 million objects and returns data in either XML or JSON format.

The API was created by NYPL’s Information Technology Group to help support the string of innovative projects coming from NYPL Labs, such as the Menus Project and Direct Me NYC 1940. On releasing the API, David Riordan, product manager for NYPL Labs, explains, “As a public library, we felt a responsibility to make this same data available to the public.”